Sunday, November 28, 2010

Texas legislators will again try to pass law allowing sobriety checkpoints

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Maybe coming to an area near you, I reckon!

﻿﻿ According to a story running today in the Dallas Morning Times, state representative Todd Smith, R-Euless will again push for a sobriety checkpoint law starting in January. Checkpoints to determine whether drivers are sober or drunk have not been allowed in Texas since 1994. Last year, Smith sponsored a similar bill but it got stalled and eventually went nowhere. With an increase of republicans in the state legislature, Smith expects his chances to be better this time around.

According to the details of the bill, it would allow for sobriety checkpoints in Texas cities with at least 500,000 people and/or counties with 250,000 populations. The article goes on to state that Texas has one of the highest proportions of drunken driving deaths in the country.

If passed, LPD officers could conceivable converge at the most popular bars in town especially at closing time and perhaps prevent a lot of accidents. Then again, would there even be enough of a police presence to enforce the sobriety checkpoint law locally?